We cover the TV News biz of Little Rock and the Ark-La-Tex(Shreveport,LA) AND Northwest Arkansas TOO!

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Mixed Signals Between Nexstar and Wehco

Well it seems no one really knows how close of far away Wehco Media is from striking a deal to keep Nexstar owned and operated KARK on its cable systems across the state. Here's a bit from a story on Arkansas Business.com:

"The situation was updated Nov. 29 in a story in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and it seems as if Nexstar and Wehco are still not close to being on the same page. An anonymous official with Wehco told the paper that talks have just begun, while Nexstar officials maintain that a deal is in its final stages."

AND it seems Comcast Cable and Nexstar have not been successful thus far in striking a deal and cable subscribers aren't the only ones waiting for the outcome. Another bit from the article:

"But even more pressing for Nexstar is the retransmission consent agreement it is trying to reach with Comcast, which would have much greater repercussions nationally.

Chuck Spohn, general manager at Clear Channel’s KLRT-TV, Channel 16, told Outtakes that the whole country is keeping an eye on that battle.

“Comcast is a big player in the business nationally,” he said. “Should they bend and start paying Nexstar the fee, then everybody everywhere will start wanting to collect a fee. Both sides have a lot riding on this.”"Well there's less than a month to go. Anybody willing to make bets KARK will dissappear from many cable systems around the state?

2 Comments:

I say that the Nexstar imposed blackout will be significant. The only winners in this will be DirecTV, Dish, and Channel Master.

As if Little Rock TV hasn't fell to new lows before.

The elderly viewers on cable will be hardest hit. Since many are not comfortable with new technology, they will leave KARK in droves (especially for early news and its very long-time noon newscast). A few will drag out the long abandoned twin lead from their still standing antennas from the 60's and 70's, but most will not come back to channel 4.

If nexstar is successful in getting their demands, then watch for KATV (aka Albritton) to do the same thing. That will *really* p.o. people.